My fear is that politics on both end overwhelms science to the point even when there is really a problem with the vaccine, the other party thinks its a political thing and ignore the dangers
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This isn’t true. Living in the himalayas may give you other advantages to avoid getting blood clots but it won’t be because you’re potentially isolated from catching covid. You’re ignoring (or not understanding) the odds of getting a blood clot without the AZ vaccine and without being infected with covid.
The odds of a CVST is approximately 5 in every 1 million per year
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/cerebral-venous-sinus-thrombosis#:~:text=CVST%20is%20a%20rare%20form,18%20will%20have%20a%20stroke.
There have been 18 cases of CVST among 20 million who have received AstraZeneca in the 2 month period in which it has been widely administered (*this timescale is approximate and obviously varies - arguably it would be more appropriate to take the mean period which would be shorter and would alter the calculation). COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca: benefits still outweigh the risks despite possible link to rare blood clots with low blood platelets | European Medicines Agency In that same period you would have expected, on average, 17 among the non-vaccinated non-covid population. *If the mean period was closer to 1 month then the odds of CVST from AZ would approximately be twice that of the non-vaccinated non-covid population.
The odds of DIC (Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation) is approximately 1% of all patients admitted to hospital. Disseminated intravascular coagulation - Wikipedia
There have been 7 cases of DIC among 20 million vaccinated. I do not know how this translates but it seems likely to be lower number than 1 in every 1,000 hospital admissions.
However
However, in younger patients there remain some concerns, related in particular to these rare cases.
The Committee’s experts looked in extreme detail at records of DIC and CVST reported from Member States, 9 of which resulted in death. Most of these occurred in people under 55 and the majority were women. Because these events are rare, and COVID-19 itself often causes blood clotting disorders in patients, it is difficult to estimate a background rate for these events in people who have not had the vaccine. However, based on pre-COVID figures it was calculated that less than 1 reported case of DIC might have been expected by 16 March among people under 50 within 14 days of receiving the vaccine, whereas 5 cases had been reported. Similarly, on average 1.35 cases of CVST might have been expected among this age group whereas by the same cut-off date there had been 12. A similar imbalance was not visible in the older population given the vaccine.
The Committee was of the opinion that the vaccine’s proven efficacy in preventing hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 outweighs the extremely small likelihood of developing DIC or CVST. However, in the light of its findings, patients should be aware of the remote possibility of such syndromes, and if symptoms suggestive of clotting problems occur patients should seek immediate medical attention and inform healthcare professionals of their recent vaccination. Steps are already being taken to update the product information for the vaccine to include more information on these risks.
The odds of DVT is about 1 in 1,000 per year. How common is DVT? - Blood Clots.
The odds of general blood clots are between 1-3 cases per every 1,000 of the population per year. Blood Clots in the United States - Blood Clots
The number of reports of thrombolic events in the 20 million vaccinated with AZ was 469. In the general population you would have expected this to be between 3,000 to 10,000 in the same period for a population of 20 million. [*or 1,500 to 5,000 taking the mean period of 1 month for AZ vaccinations]
The PRAC involved experts in blood disorders in its review, and worked closely with other health authorities including the UK’s MHRA which has experience with administration of this vaccine to around 11 million people. Overall the number of thromboembolic events reported after vaccination, both in studies before licensing and in reports after rollout of vaccination campaigns (469 reports, 191 of them from the EEA), was lower than that expected in the general population. This allows the PRAC to confirm that there is no increase in overall risk of blood clots.
The odds of developing a blood clot are actually greater if you don’t take the AZ vaccine (even ignoring the chances of being infected by covid). That’s why some experts were (sardonically) remarking that AZ vaccine could potentially be marketed as an anti-clotting medication.
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Mrs had hers this-morning. Grown an extra head already which means she can now talk twice as much…
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Similar thoughts by Mr wilkored08…cheeky buggers…
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That’s a really difficult position and one I’d argue she played correctly. A diplomat really shouldn’t be wading into issues of science and public health, and so she made a personal decision when given the opportunity to protect herself and help the information to be released at a time when it could be an uncontroversial and valuable backstop to the discourse.
We are now doing really well with the vaccinations, on track to hit our 100 millionth today, 45 days or so quicker than Biden’s 100 day target, and the daily rate continues to track up. We’re now offering them to all comers over 40 here in Orlando at select sites from Monday. Yet despite this, we’re actually seeing an uptick in cases nationwide. Probably partly early celebration of the perceived recent successes, but probably also partly the presence of the new variant that is now thought to be dominant here, and likely to be responsible for 100% of cases by the end of the summer.
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This is the first estimate that I’ve seen of the lives being saved by the vaccine roll outs in the UK and EU.
In the UK the vaccine roll-out is estimated to have saved over 7,000 lives by the end of April (more lives are being saved by the lockdown). The speed of the vaccine roll-out will also enable the economy to open up sooner.
The stark conclusion for the repurcussions of the EU’s vaccine roll out are highlighted by the estimate that had the EU’s roll-out mirrored that of the UK’s, they estimate that a further 80,000 to 140,000 more lives could have been saved.
It’s almost impossible to say how many lives have and are being lost due to the publicly maligning of one of the few vaccines available in substantial doses and of its period being suspended. I’m sure that these morbid calculations will be being made but I would not be surprised if these issues have already cost many, many thousands of lives within the EU and Europe and, unfortunately, further afield.
Another article here:
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I think we may have gone over 600,000 vaccinations for the UK for the first time yesterday. Should find out in half an hour.
Meanwhile…
https://twitter.com/BrunoBrussels/status/1372893434290307077
I don’t subscribe so can’t read any further than this…
Britain is building an alliance against Brussels, Germany, France and Italy to prevent a European Union vaccine export ban hitting crucial supplies of Pfizer-BioNTech jabs.
Boris Johnson spoke to Alexander De Croo, the Belgian prime minister, last night because Belgium, where the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is manufactured, is opposed to export bans.
The prime minister contacted De Croo, who has been critical of him in the past, to try to ensure that vaccine supplies are not blocked and because Belgium plays a key role with France and Italy.
“We discussed our efforts to tackle Covid-19. We also touched on the importance of global supply chains and on common efforts to speed up vaccine production,” De Croo said after what he described as a “good call”.
Positive signs…
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May get to over 700k tomorrow. This period to the end of March will hopefully remain at these sorts of levels before the drop in April.
[Relief for everybody else now as I suspect that the forum’s anti-spam coding will stop me from posting any more messages in here until someone else replies!]
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Obligatory anti-spam reset post.
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That one genuinely hurts my feelings 
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Same spam filter stopped me posting on the rugby page. I mean WTF, is there anything more important than international rugby?
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Pretty much everything?
Seeing that you’re on a Liverpool forum, there might be…
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I did consider it but na.
Fortunately, the rugby is not a weekly occurrence so I can share the love in the lengthy down periods
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